Not particularly related to anything booky, but sort of related to me which is why it’s here. Back in the day before my ears caved in I used to play in a few bands, like. And now I hear that Bombed Out, the record label that my last band was on, has just put out a free-to-download 18-track album sampler featuring all the bands they’ve put out in their 13-year history. So if you fancy some free UK-style melodic punk/hardcore goodness, or you’re just curious to hear what the inside of Joseph’s Well in Leeds sounded like on any given Saturday night in the early years of the new millennium, you can download it here. Of course, if that ain’t your bag, move along, nothing to see here.

For those of you disinterested in the epic tale of how I led Notts County from League 2 obscurity to winning the quintuple back-to-back, you might perk up at the news that the third book in The Tales Of The Ketty Jay hit the shelves yesterday. If you’re unfortunate enough not to live in the sceptr’d isle, you can order it from The Book Depository, who do free shipping worldwide, just in case you’re one of the three people on the planet I haven’t already told about this.

As always, release dates should be the same in Australia, Canada, and anywhere else that still pays lip service to the Queen 😉 Any other countries, including the US, I just don’t know so pleeeease don’t ask. I’ll tell you when I find out.

Movie news, for those who’ve been asking: there is none.

Release date for Pandemonium has been pushed back to February in the US.

Currently I’m working on Silver, which is rolling along nicely and is already racking up quite a bodycount. I’m also working on a movie which I’m very bouncy excited about but it’s really too early to talk about it much.

Yeah, what the title says! Head over to Bookgeeks for some badass competitionage and win yourself an early copy. Only open to people in the UK, I’m afraid, but there has to be SOME consolation for our lack of summer (again).

Oh no, wait, am I gonna actually have to buy an e-reader now? Thousands of out-of-print classic SF and Fantasy novels resurrected like a horde of radioactive necromorphs for the delectation of the ebook generation? I can virtually feel myself being dragged by my fingernails into the future. Damn.

The new edition of the Braided Path, after a few technical difficulties, has found its way into online booksellers just in time for the release date. In fact, it’s available now from Play.com or at The Book Depository (free postage overseas, if you don’t live in the UK), and Amazon have it up for pre-order. Sweet. Just to be clear, it’s NOT a hardback as I previously thought it was. However, that’s all good as it clocks in at almost a thousand pages and a hardback would squash you.

I recently did an interview with SF website SFFWorld.com, which you can find here if you want to kill a couple of minutes at work/school/while taking a break from gold farming on WoW.

I’ve started work on my next book, with the working title of Silver. It’s a YA sci-fi horror. And that’s all I’m telling you for the moment, except that its vibe harks back to the skin-crawling megadark of The Haunting Of Alaizabel Cray, which should tickle a few whiskers 😉 Currently it’s slated for release in May 2013, which is quite a while off due to various publishing arrangements, but hopefully the US and UK will get it at the same time instead of six months apart. Anyway, you’ll have Pandemonium to keep you warm in 2012, and it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that you’ll get the fourth Ketty Jay book in early 2013. Yes, your maths are right, that would be before Silver comes out, even though I’ll be writing it afterwards. I know, I amaze myself sometimes…

And better still, the whole graphic novel is full colour like this. I’ve seen some of Cassandra’s finished interior art and it’s utterly brilliant. It’s due to be released IN THE US ONLY on New Year’s Day. Contrary to the usual way of things with my books, the States will be getting it first, as this is a project done with the American arm of Scholastic. Other countries (including Britain) will get it later as individual publishers make their own arrangements. I’ll let you know about release dates when I do. Meantime, you can preorder it from Amazon US here.

Also, I’ve finally delivered the final final copyedited final version of The Iron Jackal, finally. It’s in the bag and set for Oct 20th in the UK. Don’t know for the States or other countries yet, as they have to cut their own deals: again, I’ll let you know when I do.

My next book is going to be another YA one before I do the 4th Ketty Jay. I’ll be able to tell you a bit about it very soon, am just waiting on the okay from Scholastic before I get into it; but I am fairly jigging with excitement. It WON’T be another Malice book, however: it’ll be a standalone. The will-he-won’t-he saga of Malice 3 has dragged on a long time now, for which I apologise. The delay was because of business decisions between the various arms of Scholastic that I can’t really go into, and all that took ages to sort out, and it’s still not entirely done. There still may or may not be another one further down the line, but it probably won’t be for a while if so.

Just a couple of quick reminders, since my appearances in the world of mortals are rare and few:

I’ll be at Forbidden Planet, Thurs 23rd from 6pm-7pm for their Ten Author Signing. From 7pm – midnight said Ten Authors will presumably be in a nearby pub, drinking away the demons of their ruined lives and shattered pasts.

I’ll be at Alt Fiction in Derby doing a bunch of panels and readings and stuff on Sat 25th. I’ll still be around on the Sunday, but I’m not doing any panels that day so I’ll just be generally shiftless.

Speaking of Derby, while randomly googling my own books in a narcissistic frenzy, I discovered that there’s a band called Alaizabel Cray that hails from there. Now, frankly, her name is too hard to spell for it to be a coincidence, so I shall take it as a ‘Yay’ moment. They may not be threatening The X-Factor any time soon but I used to listen to a bunch of Morbid Angel, Carcass and Obituary back in the day so I’m down with this 😉 Give ’em a listen!

First a reminder that The Black Lung Captain is now available in the UK in mass market paperback (ie the handy, cheap and pocket-sized paperbacks we all know and love instead of the big fat trade editions). It will get its first release July 26th in the US.

Second, Alaizabel made the Total Film ‘30 Books That Could Be The Next Harry Potter‘ list! Woo! Yes, I’ll take Fincher & McAvoy, thank you 😉 Before anyone asks, I have no news on the movie. We’ve only just got through all the contract bumph with Trademark Films, but all is now signed and done so they will presumably (hopefully) be getting to work on it very soon. News when I have it.

Title says it all, really. I’ll be doing another book signing at Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue in London on the 23rd of the month, which is a Thursday. Other eminent SF/Fantasy authors who may want to scratch you with their pens on the day will include, but are not limited to, Tom Lloyd, Jaine Fenn, Mark Barrowcliffe and (99% certainty and rising) James Barclay. I’ll give you the full cast list when I’ve got it.

So I’ve been writing all kinds of secret little projects while waiting for my editor to get back to me with The Iron Jackal edits, which you may hear about in time if anything comes of them 😉

Meantime, let me tell you about another convention at which I shall be doing some general panel-bothering and gobbing off about all and sundry: Alt Fiction, which is held in Derby on the 25th and 26th of June. This will be my first year at Alt Fiction, but I’m assured by all and sundry that it’s very good fun, so if you’re lucky enough to come from the Midlands like I am, get yerself down there. Or just, y’know, get in a car or something if you’re from further afield…